. In the footsteps of Napoleon, his life and its famous scenes. ine, the friarsgave him a post of honour in the corps, but the boys court-martialed him as unworthy of our esteem since he disdainsour affections. His independence, however, was piquingthem at last, and this, with his uncomplaining acceptanceof their verdict, served to bring him more into their any rate, he found himself after a while on better termswith his surroundings, and with one of the boys, LouiseAntoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, he formed a close friend-ship. In Napoleons last winter at Brienne, there was a heavysn
. In the footsteps of Napoleon, his life and its famous scenes. ine, the friarsgave him a post of honour in the corps, but the boys court-martialed him as unworthy of our esteem since he disdainsour affections. His independence, however, was piquingthem at last, and this, with his uncomplaining acceptanceof their verdict, served to bring him more into their any rate, he found himself after a while on better termswith his surroundings, and with one of the boys, LouiseAntoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, he formed a close friend-ship. In Napoleons last winter at Brienne, there was a heavysnow, which brought him an opportunity, the only recordedone, to be a leader among his school fellows. The snow wasso deep in the big courtyard that the boys were proposed that they get shovels, build snow forts, anddividing up, engage in sieges and attacks. I, said thestrategist, I will direct the movements. The boys took holdwith enthusiasm, the forts were erected and were furiouslystormed until the contending forces had delved so deep that. Statue of Napoleon, the vSciioolboy, and the Gate of His OldSchool at le Chateau SCHOOLDAYS IN FRANCE 17 gravel was mixed with the snowballs and the casualties grewserious. The school as a school seems to have been rather poor. Itfailed utterly to discover Napoleon, and there is no recordthat this world-beater won a single prize at Brienne. He re-ceived dancing lessons, but did not learn to dance. He tookGerman, but seems not to have remembered any of it in man-hood. He read Latin authors with a real hunger for knowl-edge, but never got beyond the fourth class in his Latin received writing lessons, but his penmanship is perhapsthe worst in history. The library was his favourite haunt. In the recreationperiods he was more likely to be there with a volume of Plu-tarch in his hand than on the playground. He had found forhimself the combination of the lock on the storehouse of knowl-edge—a desire to read
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectnapoleo, bookyear1915
